Virtual IID Fair, today 8AM PST

It wouldn't be a real innovation day if nothing significantly new shows up.

And here you have it!

Today, Thu Apr 7th @ 8AM PST (5PM in Italy) the Virtual Italian Innovation Day fair will officially open.
What does that mean really? It means that:

1. you'll be able to setup your avatar (not quite Wii style, but you can decide to wear your Arabic look...)
2. you can visit all the virtual booths of the Startups (room/pavilion B in the virtual world) and SMEs (room A) that participated at the Stanford event.
3. you can download all the relevant information you expect from a trade show. For every exhibitor that means business cards, marketing material, videos, etc
4. Watch the videos of the entire conference who took place @ Stanford (hint: do not miss the investor panel)
5. Only today 8-11AM you'll be able to interact synchronously with the exhibitors. Chat, shaking hands, conduct business, even interview ...kind of like at a real trade show (expect the painful feet part)

It will be a first for me. And I can't wait to try it, eventually.

For the record, the virtual fair is the result of the amazing work done by our friends @ Hyperfair, one of the startups still hosted @ the MTB GYM.

I tried today, here's my personal feeling.
It does take sometime to download the plugin, setup your account, avatar, answer the highly politically incorrect questions, etc...
Also to understand how to move about avoiding to hit the wall at every curve. But once you get the hang of it, it's definitely a new experience.

You'll just need to come prepared with a glass of prosecco. That one has to be real.

See you in the virtual world!

IID goes virtual (with Hyperfair)

[guest post by Andrea Ballarini, Hyperfair COO]

Don’t miss the opportunity to attend the Italian Innovation Day from the convenience of your home of office: the Italian Innovation Day goes virtual!

One week after the physical event, on April 7th, 2011 from 8am-11am PDT (17:00-21:00 GMT+1) you will be able to live the event again. Go to

virtual.italianinnovationday.com
sign up and start enjoying a fully immersive 3D experience. After styling your avatar you will be able to walk in a 3D world and get to know more about the companies by visiting their booths and interacting with their representatives through audio and video chat. You will also get the chance to watch the full recording of the conference by going to the virtual auditorium.

Be innovative yourself and attend the Virtual Italian Innovation Day!

Introducing HyperFair: Trade fairs get virtual

Even if many of you have already heard about them, today we would like to officially introduce HyperFair, the new stat up that is taking part to the 2010 Gym Program at Pier 38.

HyperFair, thanks to a proprietary web-based 3D platform, revolutionizes the way of making trade fairs, organizing and managing turnkey virtual exhibitions on the web. HyperFair reproduces the trade fair environment just as we all know it: pavilions, booths, workshops and conferences. Inside the virtual fair real people in real time are moving around, interacting through their avatar and communicating via chat and video call. Exhibitors can choose their stand and customize it adding 3D products, brochures, video and any interactive content. Visitors can exchange information, view the products and download documents from the comfort and convenience of their home or office.

HyperFair (www.hyperfair.com) was founded in December 2009 by Marco Campanari (CEO) and Massimiliano Bonfanti (executive VP). The Company holds a qualified technological partnership with the Politecnico of Milan University, and is being hosted by the University incubator managed by the "Politecnico of Milan” Foundation. The operations in the U.S. are carried out by Andrea Ballarini (COO) who is also leading the strategies of the Company.

HyperFair has completed the development of the technology and in November will show up to the market during the Virtual Transpotec. Next appointment will be in December during the Hip Expo, the first online fair dedicated to halal food products. (www.hyperfair.com/eng/eventi/eventi.html).

We asked Marco how the project started and which are their plans for the future. That’s what he answered: “We officially started up HyperFair in Italy on December 2009, but we have been working on it since the beginning of 2009. Massimiliano and I were looking for a new technology that could significantly impact the business community and we came up with this ground-breaking idea by developing our own innovative technology. We thought to a virtual world focused on business applications where people could interact and do business together as well as socialize and improve their network; everything without moving from the office.

Our product was meant to be at the same time fully 3D-immersive, strongly multimedia oriented, and cool. We first made a technical JV with the Politecnico di Milano-Metid Center and after we entered into Politecnico incubator. The reason why we are at Pier38 with Mind The Bridge is that we want to think global: we'll soon relocate HyperFair headquarters in San Francisco, keeping the technical development in Italy. Our mission? To grow as much as possible, as quickly as possible. To this extent, no other place in the world is better than the Silicon Valley.

Italian Parliament member visiting the GYM

August 26th has been a crowded day here at Pier 38. We had numerous guests intrigued to visit our new location in San Francisco. At 3.00 pm we received a special visit from honorable Alessia Mosca, member of the Italian Parliament along with the Italian Consul in San Francisco, Fabrizio Marcelli.

Alessia Mosca (www.alessiamosca.it), is the current secretary at the Labor commission of the Italian Parliament. She has been the protagonist of numerous petitions for women’ equal opportunities and has a special interest for the dynamics that affect the Italian entrepreneurial ecosystem. Alessia was supposed to be in San Francisco on vacation but she carved some time to meet the MtB factory.

“This place is marvelous”, she said once entered our old-navy-style open space, perfectly fitting the in her jeans and T-shirt. After a short tour of the premises, meeting the start ups and incubators that are based in the Pier, we moved to our favorite meeting room (also used for after-hour video games competitions).

Here we met Marco Campanari, CEO and founder of Hyperfair, and Andrea Ballarini, (COO) responsible for leading the strategies and setting up the company operations in the U.S. Hyperfair is the typical example of an Italian Company managed by talented professionals that intend to take all the chances offered by the market at a global level. Marco gave us a brief introduction about the story of the company and the plans for the future, while Andrea showed us a demo on how they organizes and manages virtual trade fairs on the web. “HyperFair reproduces the trade fair environment just as we all know it: pavilions, booths, workshops and conferences. Inside the virtual fair people are moving around and interact through their avatar (virtual alter-ego), communicating in real time via chat and videocall”.

Coming back to reality we discussed about the major drivers of the innovation process and the problems that a young Company have to face in the actual Italian contest. Alessia was particularly interested in the subject as she is working on future reforms that the Italian Parliament should introduce in Italy to promote the Venture Capital industry. It was 5.30 when Alessia left us to spend the rest of the day in a sunny San Francisco.

We thank our guests for the visit and we hope that our experience in Silicon Valley will contribute to produce significant changes in the Italian entrepreneurial ecosystem.

Silicon Valley Study Tour visits Mind the Bridge at Pier 38.

Yesterday a group of about 20 leading students from Italy visited Mind the Bridge office at Pier 38, San Francisco. They are participating to the 6th edition of the Silicon Valley Study Tour, one of the first initiatives aimed at introducing young graduates from Italy to the Silicon Valley, creating useful links with Italian "insiders" working here and giving awareness of the opportunities in the Bay Area.

After meeting Elance and the theme-park-looking headquarters of Yahoo and Facebook, it's time for them to enter Pier 38, the funky place in which more and more fledgling Web 2.0 startups are renting desks to stay plugged into the ecosystem.

It's 6 P.M. and a chaotic and crowded meeting of "Hackers & Founders" has just started in the open space where MtB works. The first impact of the group is a bit unexpected:
"How can people work here with this noise?" asks Roberta Martelli, studying business at the University of Piemonte Orientale and one of the few girls in the group. A hundred geeks and want-to-be entrepreneurs are in fact having a beer and some pretzels and talking about shiny technologies, new projects, sharing ideas and looking for co-founders. Even if during the day people work hard and are mainly silent, it's routine to have some social events in the evening. Everyone enjoys the atmosphere and starts to meet other interesting people, so that it becomes nearly difficult to start presenting our activity.

"Environment and people are so smart here that you immediately would like to join them and create a startup!" says Enrico Cinquini, a student of the University of Genova interested in criptography.
Nonetheless, the visit goes on and sitting on couches we listen to Marco Campanari, CEO and founder of Hyperfair, one of the 2 new startups that will take part in the MtB Gym program. The audience looks very interested: finally an Italian promise in the Silicon Valley!
After that, we invite our Spanish friend Pedro Moneo to present Opinno, an open innovation network of entrepreneurs and investors, working just beside us, in the same "Mediterranean branch" at Pier 38. People continue to interact, exchanging business cards and eating popcorns. We finally ask Roberto Fonti, a smart Italian guy who founded Buzzbox - a web startup developing Android ad iPhone applications to filter news - to tell his experience as Italian in the Silicon Valley.
Even if tired due to the intensity of the day, students are very glad to meet these people really living the American dream.
What if one day they become the next Zuckerberg...?